P006 Initiation of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure as an inpatient in Patients with Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome admitted to General Medical Unit

BACKGROUND: With higher rates of obesity in regional and rural Australian population, there will be higher rates of Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome (OHS). The cornerstone of the treatment of OHS is Positive Airways Pressure. We studied the initiation of Continuous Positive Airways Pressure (CPAP) in an inpatient setting in patients with OHS in the regional population of Ballarat and subsequent impact on their hospital stay/readmission. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study of 22 patients with OHS during the 6-month study period (01/07/2021–31/12/2021) admitted into General Medical Unit at Ballarat Base Hospital. PROGRESS: Complete OUTCOME/IMPACT: The mean age in the cohort was 60 with average weight of 139.5 kg. The mean pCO2 and pH were 68.1 and 7.33 respectively. CPAP was initiated in 9 of 22 patients (40.1%) with mean of 7.3 days. Mean days of oxygen use was 4.7 days with mean length of hospital stay 10 days. We did not find any statistical difference in length of hospital stay, ICU stay, supplemental oxygen use or readmission rates between CPAP and non-CPAP group. Subgroup analysis showed that CPAP group had higher rates of COPD (44.4% vs 30.8%) and diabetes (44.4% vs 30.8%) with trend to lower FEV1 (mean FEV1 47.6% vs 57.2%). There were 4 deaths (16.7%), 3 of them did not have CPAP initiated. The longer duration to CPAP initiation is likely to explain the non-significant difference between the groups. Proactive measures to increase initiation of CPAP is likely to improve patient outcome in terms of their morbidity and mortality.